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Boundary-crossing Leadership Cooperation in the MNC The Case of ‘Group Mindset’ in Solar A/S

Nielsen, Rikke Kristine(Frederiksberg, 2014)

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Resume:

This dissertation deals with global mindset leadership understood as border- and boundary-crossing
leadership within the multinational corporation by exploring the concept of global mindset as both an
individual managerial meta-competence, as well as a strategic organizational capability. The research
project presented explores the practical and theoretical avenues for working with global mindset as a
strategic lever and method of securing business strategy executional agility, which is explored in the
context of a single-case study organization, Solar - an internationalizing medium-sized MNC seeking to
work in practice with global mindset leadership development and enactment as a strategy execution
facilitator.
Internationalizing corporations often experience the liability of foreignness when moving into new markets,
and in effect suffer a globalization penalty vis-à-vis local competition in different markets. At the same time,
they are pushed to consider the potential non-transferability of domestic competitive advantages and business
models, when moving into new territory and may have to make adjustments to cater to different customer
preferences and other local specificities in a variety of markets simultaneously. Further, international and
global collaboration is more complex than local collaboration and as a consequence, corporations need to be
better at collaborating in order to receive the same effect compared to domestic operations alone. This is due
to the fact that culturally and strategically employees and managers at all hierarchical levels understand each
other less, while language barriers may at the same time place a strain on communication and collaboration.
Transaction costs rise as corporations move from high-context collaboration with low psychic distance in a
domestic setting or between relatively similar groupings, where many things are shared and taken for granted
and thus need not be explicated to a low-context communication setting where little or no common ground
can be taken for granted. This dissertation argues the case that leadership with a global mindset is relevant
for companies and organizations that make strategic use of global mindset as a driver for global business
strategy. As such global mindset is seen as strategic global mindset in that the rationale for developing global
mindset is as a facilitator of business strategy. The context of the individual company is an indicator for what
global mindset means in the particular company, and for who can benefit from it. Global mindset is not seen
as generic, but highly contextual when looking at the practical implementation of the concept empirically.
The aim of working with global mindset, then, is the optimization of global mindset in relation to the
context, the managerial role and the business strategy, not an end in itself.

In this exploratory study we take a strategic management approach to global sourcing of
advanced services. We discuss in which ways conventional sourcing differs from strategic
sourcing and what impels firms to aim for the latter (or, prevent them from doing so).
Potentially, strategic global sourcing of services has high returns, but is also associated with
high risks and needs for organizational changes. Strategic global sourcing may therefore be
outside firms’ “comfort zone” – a composite of organizational knowledge transferability,
structural inertia, managers’ risk preferences, and – most interesting in a strategic
management perspective ‐ their ability to mitigate risks of strategic global sourcing. One
important risk reducing measure is internalization of (out)sourced service activities. Many firms
instigate global sourcing via conventional offshore outsourcing. However, as the human asset
specificity of the outsourcing operation increases, firms are pulled out of their comfort zones
and a desire for internalization arises. An illustrative company case gives suggestions as to
how, in practice, internalization may be accomplished without losing valuable human assets
held by the local service providers.

In this exploratory study we take a strategic management approach to global sourcing of
advanced services. We discuss in which ways conventional sourcing differs from strategic
sourcing and what impels firms to aim for the latter (or, prevent them from doing so).
Potentially, strategic global sourcing of services has high returns, but is also associated with
high risks and needs for organizational changes. Strategic global sourcing may therefore be
outside firms’ “comfort zone” – a composite of organizational knowledge transferability,
structural inertia, managers’ risk preferences, and – most interesting in a strategic
management perspective ‐ their ability to mitigate risks of strategic global sourcing. One
important risk reducing measure is internalization of (out)sourced service activities. Many firms
instigate global sourcing via conventional offshore outsourcing. However, as the human asset
specificity of the outsourcing operation increases, firms are pulled out of their comfort zones
and a desire for internalization arises. An illustrative company case gives suggestions as to
how, in practice, internalization may be accomplished without losing valuable human assets
held by the local service providers.

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‘Good’ Outcomes – Handling Multiplicity in Government Communication This thesis examines how five Danish government organizations produce and assess communicative solutions in practice, and argues that government communication may be understood as a case of multiplicity. In the practices of producing and assessing communicative solutions it is uncertain what constitutes a ‘good’ outcome of government communication. This uncertainty is grasped by drawing upon analytical resources from the field of multiplicity-oriented ANT analyses. Empirically, the thesis is based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted at the five government organizations. Combining empirical observations, theoretical insights, and political programmes, four ‘modes of ordering’ are developed and these are utilized in exploring how the multiplicity of government communication unfurls and how it is handled in practice. The thesis shows how the ordering attempts described by the four modes of ordering coexist and interfere, and it suggests the notions of ‘sequencing’ and ‘singularizing’ for understanding how the multiplicity of government communication is handled in the production and assessment of communicative solutions. The study upon which the thesis reports has been carried out in connection with a larger Industrial PhD project, entitled Measurements you can learn from, that aimed at developing, testing, and implementing new and better communication measurements.

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Tourism policy matters in cultural tourism. The starting point of this paper is the observation that
many tourism policy studies draw three inter-related conclusions. One, tourism policy must be
inclusive and require the support of different stakeholders (Baker 2009; Bernhard Jørgensen and
Munar 2009). Two, a balanced approach to tourism policy is needed to harness the benefits of
tourism while mitigating negative effects (Budeanu 2009; Chang 1997; Jenkins 1997; Leheny 1995,
Newby 1994; Teo and Yeoh, 1997). Three, tourism policies should accentuate and maintain the
cultural uniqueness and authenticity of the destination (Morgan et al. 2011). It seems that many
tourism authorities are ignorant of local interests, unaware of the touristification of local cultures
and uninterested in promoting local cultures. But local cultures and communities are what that
constitute cultural tourism.

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An Analysis of the Reengineering of Intermediation by Electronic Commerce

Brousseau, Eric(København, 2001)

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Efficiency arguments explain why commercial intermediaries exist and will continue to be involved in the exchanges despite the spread of digital networks. Commercial intermediaries provide producers and consumers with a set of information, logistic, securization and insurance (and liquidity) services. By bundling these services and by dedicating assets and learning capabilities to their production, commercial intermediaries enable to economize on transaction costs. Digital network per se cannot enables transacting parties to benefit from such efficient providers of intermediation services. Rather than establishing direct relationships among producers and consumers, the Internet will support a re-organization of existing intermediation chains, because traditional intermediaries will reinforce their ability to provide these service by using ITs. The analysis of the role of commercial intermediaries thus leads to a better understanding of the futures of e-Commerce. In turn, e-Commerce provides New-Institutional Economics with a stimulating case to analyze the economics of commercial intermediation.

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All knowledge is context dependent. The relevant context is the social community where it resides, i.e. the ‘epistemic community’ formed as groups of people define and legitimize the knowledge they possess. In the mutual engagement in a common enterprise, epistemic communities develop, maintain and nurture the codes, tools and theories that provide the basis of their practice. Commonalities of code, tools and theory facilitate both voluntary transfer and involuntary imitation of knowledge within communities, also ones spanning organizational boundaries. Conversely, knowledge transfer between different epistemic communities, whether desired or unintended, is often cumbersome and fraught with difficulties. In order to achieve effective integration and cooperation between its various professional communities and subcultures, firms must therefore undertake investments in boundary-spanning mechanisms. Since these investments are specific to the context in which they take place and to the transactions that they enable, they cannot easily be organized through arm’s length contracts. Firms exist because they have a relative advantage over markets in the integration of diverse knowledge. However, the associated capabilities need not translate into a relative advantage also in the transfer of knowledge, i.e. knowledge exchanged between members of the same epistemic community. Within communities, knowledge disseminates with relative ease both intentionally and through emulation. Knowledge thus acquired can generally be applied also outside the context of the exchange and the effort or investment expended in its acquisition is not transaction specific. The governance mode applied in such exchanges is therefore determined by strategic and contextual factors, including those of traditional transaction cost logic.

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Currently, the corporate governance has the agenda of categorizing reality and
thereby determining which systems are more effective and efficient in a given
context. A question is posed; how has the internationalization of markets,
liberalization, deregulation, and privatization adapted to rapid changes in
traditionally based models of corporate governance? When corporate governance
practices are exported from one country to another, they tend to be translated and
customized to local practices before being adopted. The objective of this thesis is
to examine this type of adaptation and explain the circumstances that led to a
collapse of governance mechanisms, using Iceland as an example.

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This paper examines the role of social capital (trust) vis-à-vis the propensity of a country to be a tax
haven. The empirical analysis corroborates that better governed countries have a higher ceteris paribus
probability to be tax havens. However, social capital counteracts the effect of governance quality. This
effect is so strong that the partial effect of governance quality is reversed for countries with the trust
index in the top quartile – making these high trust countries less likely to be tax havens – even as
governance quality is increased. Thus it is crucial to consider the interaction between institutions and
social capital, since the same governance institutions have a different impact on the tax haven
propensity for countries with different social capital.

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The emerging Knowledge Governance Approach asserts the need to build microfoundations
grounded in individual action. Toward this goal, using the Theory of Planned
Behavior, we aim to explain individual knowledge sharing behavior as being determined
by the intention to share knowledge and its antecedents: attitude toward knowledge
sharing, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control. In addition, we consider
managerial interventions (governance mechanisms) that managers can employ to
influence the identified antecedents and thereby govern individual knowledge sharing
behavior. We test the model arrived at on a dataset collected among individuals engaged
in knowledge sharing in two competing firms. Results of the LISREL analysis show that
the use of rewards affects attitudes toward knowledge sharing negatively, while the use of
reciprocal schemes and communication mechanisms have a positive effect on subjective
norms and perceived behavioral control, respectively.

SHRM increasingly emphasizes HRM practices as means to build strategic knowledge resources
such as superior capabilities. While the knowledge-based view increasingly pays attention to
micro-foundations, the SHRM field neglects these and emphasizes collective constructs such as
“human capital pools,” “HRM architectures”, etc. As a result, causal links between HRM
practices, knowledge and organizational performance are black-boxed. We propose a program
for research and identify some of the key issues that future research must deal with.

An under-researched issue in work within the "knowledge movement" is the
relation between organizational issues and knowledge processes (i.e., sharing
and creating knowledge). We argue that managers can shape formal
organization structure and organization forms and can influence the more
informal organizational practices in order to foster knowledge sharing and
creation. Theoretically, we unfold this argument by relying on key ideas of
organizational economics and organizational behaviour studies. We put forward
a number of refutable propositions derived from this reasoning.
Acknowledgments
We are grateful to Anna Grandori for numerous excellent comments on an
earlier draft. The standard disclaimer applies.
Keywords: Knowledge creation, knowledge sharing, governance, organizational
economics, organizational behavior.

This paper claims that technology and institutions both epitomize the construction
of artificial orders through which a primary reality is shaped to something
other than it is by logical operations that share essential affinities. Drawing on this, we
work our way to showing how technology operates as governing regime and how
tasks and operations that are carried out by the human enactment of expert rules and
procedures can considerably be embodied onto technological sequences with which
human experts have limited and severely structured interaction. These ideas are illustrated
by reference to cultural memory organizations (e.g. libraries, archives, museums)
and the ways the deepening infiltration of their operations by computing technologies
redefines their goals and the skills, practices and arrangements through
which these goals have traditionally been pursued.